Homemade Blue Cheese Dressing {for salads or dipping} & a Sweet Potato Chips FAIL!

February 13, 2011
Homemade Blue Cheese Dressing beats the bottled stuff, hands-down!  It makes for one fabulous dressing for salads, or a tasty dip for chips or wings.  Just don't plan on dipping homemade sweet potato chips in it ... unless you have much better luck than me.

Homemade Blue Cheese Dressing Image


Now just look at those homemade sweet potato chips.  Don't they look good?

 Well, unfortunately they weren't.


At least not as good as I expected them to be.  And, truth be told, they were quite "fussy" to make (read that "tedious!").  The amount of effort required was not worth the result.  The flavor was decent, but my texture result was not.

The potato chips have a combination of chili powder, cumin, and paprika on them.  So hmmmm, I thought to myself - if we dip buffalo hot wings in blue cheese dressing, might it be tasty to dip these spicy sweet potato chips in blue cheese dressing, too??  And that's how today's cooking adventure was born.

So, I went to work making sweet potato chips and blue cheese dressing. 

I'm happy to say that the blue cheese dressing is fabulous!

But instead of enjoying it as a dip for sweet potato chips, we'll be enjoying it on a salad, as a dip for good old vegetable sticks, or with a big platter of baked buffalo wings.

Homemade Blue Cheese Dressing Recipe for Dipping Buffalo Wings Image

The homemade blue cheese dressing recipe is from my friend Jennie.  And I can say with confidence that, as of today, it will be a very rare day when I buy pre-fabbed bottled blue cheese dressing again.  I'm now a 100% homemade convert.

It's pretty simple to make, too.

First, put your blue cheese dressing base ingredients - some plain yogurt, mayonnaise, grated shallot, fresh lemon juice, and Worcestershire - in a bowl.

How to Make Homemade Blue Cheese Dressing Image

Give it a good stir to get everything all cozy together.

How to Make Homemade Blue Cheese Dressing Picture

Then put in blue cheese crumbles, and gently fold those in. 

How to Make Homemade Blue Cheese Dressing Photo

You don't want to over-work it and break up all those nice, big hunks of blue cheese.  You want it to be all lumpy-bumpy.

And that's all there is to making homemade blue cheese dressing.

With phase 1 of the adventure done, it was time to move on to the sweet potato chips.  Unfortunately, phase 2 didn't go so well.  The first challenge was to get the sweet potatos sliced thinly - about 1/8" thick.  My food processor isn't able to slice that thinly, and I don't own a mandoline (and would be afraid I'd cut my fingers off if I did!  I'm a clutz.), so I tried the slicing side of my 6-sided box grater.  No luck.  This left me with only the option of slicing by hand.  Do you know how hard it is to evenly slice by hand?  Chock that up to "Fussiness" #1.

Next, toss the potato slices in a canola oil-and-spice mix to coat, and lay in a single layer on baking sheets.  Oil coated potato slices stick together and are not that easy to separate.  "Fussiness" #2.

Then bake, watching carefully to make sure they don't burn.  Remember that trouble I had slicing them evenly?  Well ... here's what happens when some of the slices are thinner than others ... they end up like these guys -- "Fussiness" #3.


Oh, and did I mention that half-way through cooking you turn the potato slices over?  I started this process using tongs, but it was hard to grab the slices because they were so thin.  So I ended up just using my fingers ... on potato slices that were baking in a 400 degree oven.  Yes, it did hurt.  Thank you for asking.  "Fussiness" #4.

The final result?  Sweet potato chips that were very unevenly cooked - sometimes burnt, sometimes just right, and - more often than not - soggy and flimsy.  While the flavor was good, I was severely disappointed with the end product.


So ... the very fabulous, absolutely yummy, amazingly wonderful homemade blue cheese dressing ended up being enjoyed like this ~ with good old celery sticks.  Yum.

Homemade Blue Cheese Dressing Photo
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Salad Dressings
Yield: about 1 1/2 cups

Homemade Blue Cheese Dressing

Homemade Blue Cheese Dressing beats the bottled stuff, hands-down! It makes for one fabulous dressing for salads, or a tasty dip for chips or wings.
prep time: 10 Mcook time: total time: 10 M

ingredients:

  • 3/4 c. nonfat plain yogurt (I used nonfat plain Greek yogurt)
  • 3/4 c. mayonnaise
  • 1 medium shallot, finely chopped (I usually use just a small slice from a regular onion, and grate it)
  • 1 T. fresh lemon juice
  • 1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
  • 1/4 tsp. freshly ground pepper
  • 3 to 4 oz. good blue cheese, crumbled

instructions:

How to cook Homemade Blue Cheese Dressing

  1. In a bowl, combine all dressing ingredients except the blue cheese. Crumble in the blue cheese and fold together gently. (NOTE: Don't use finely crumbled blue cheese - you want it chunky. And it's best to buy a block of cheese and crumble it yourself ~ the cheese is "more moist" and you get better, larger chunks.)
  2. Store covered in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours before serving to allow the flavors to meld.
Created using The Recipes Generator

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6 comments

  1. Loving the blog, Tracey! You are doing such a nice job with it!!! Have you ever tried frying the chips? I know it's not as healthy, but I have had good luck with that. Blue cheese looks wonderful, I need to make that!

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  2. Thanks, Jen! I'm having fun. No, I haven't tried frying them - I usally avoid frying, but may give that a go for this. Thanks for the suggestion!

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  3. I make my own Blue Cheese dressing and I like the little extras you added. Sounds good.

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  4. This inspired me to try to make my own blue cheese dressing instead of making a vinegrette. I will use my homemade keifer strained to a yogurt consistancy instead of greek yogurt.

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  5. That dip looks so good! I'm trying to eat full-fat natural foods these days so will add full fat yoghurt but the other ingredients look perfect! I can't wait to try this. Thanks for the recipe.

    Best wishes,
    Natasha in Oz

    ReplyDelete
  6. Can't wait to try your delicious dip! Thanks so much for sharing your awesome post with Full Plate Thursday and have a great weekend!
    Hope to see you again real soon,
    Miz Helen

    ReplyDelete

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